translation, the debt ceiling deal didn't do enough about the debt itself. so keep this in mind when you hear it said,be with great certainty it's the republicans trying to force spending cuts over endangering the nation credit rating. as will rogers quoted once, "it isn'tbe what we don't know that gives us trouble. it's what we know that ain't so." bret? >> bret: the president has effectively turned the messaging around. by saying it's about paying the bills that congress has already passed. the laws that it's already passed. republicans are saying it's about borrowing authority. essentially running up the country's credit card. >> exactly. what the republicans are saying is look, we maxed out the credit card. it's time before we extend any new credit or allow any new credit to do something aboutbe the spending that got us here. that would seem on the surface to be a reasonable argument. but so far, the republicans have not been able to win it. and what tends to happen in the fights when you get all of this late hour melodrama as we have had in the last cou